Billionaire and influential investor Warren Buffett has made it clear that he does not plan to endorse a political candidate and once again slammed deepfakes — videos altered with AI tech — that claim otherwise.
Buffett
“In light of the increased usage of social media, there have been numerous fraudulent claims regarding Mr. Buffett’s endorsement of investment products as well as his endorsement and support of political candidates,” Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement issued this week. “Mr. Buffett does not currently and will not prospectively endorse investment products or endorse and support political candidates.”
Buffett has previously expressed concerns over AI and even compared the tech to the atomic bomb.
Speaking at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders conference in May, Buffett likened the advent of AI to his views on nuclear weapons. The Berkshire CEO referenced his remarks from the previous year’s conference, recalling that he had described the atomic bomb as a genie let out of the bottom that “has been doing some terrible things” and “scares the hell out of” him.
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“AI is somewhat similar, it’s part way out of the bottle, and it’s enormously important and it’s gonna be done by somebody,” Buffett said. “We may wish we’d never seen that genie, or it may do wonderful things.”
While he said he’s not very familiar with the technology, he had one experience that made him “a little nervous” about AI: He stumbled across a video using his likeness generated by AI, “delivering a message that in no way” came from him. He worried that that could open the floodgates for potential scams, calling it “the growth industry of all time.”
Buffett may have been referring to a deepfake video, which has been debunked, showing the Oracle of Omaha promoting a Bitcoin giveaway on Fox News.
In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James referenced Buffett in an investor alert warning about scams using AI.
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